I want to buy a new laptop. I'm looking at the dell inspirion9300 and the HP zd8000. My best friend works for tech depot, he says dells are shit. My step-dad is an IT guy and he says HP are shit. Now I can't decide what to get. Anybody out there use either of these two brands? if so what's your take on them........

 

dell, i ordered an xps 2 days ago

 

I only had one problem in 3 years with my last Inspiron... the mousepad just stopped working and would throw the cursor all over. Other than that no problems, and I just bought an inspiron 700m not too long ago. The 700 has been great.

Dells aren't shit, they are just the most inexpensive systems around. An inspiron isn't going to match the quality of a $2k system, but for what you pay I think they are the best bang for the buck (for a windows machine).

I don't like HP at all though.

If possible, I'd get an iBook.

 

Not of fan of Inspiron. Lattitude is a different story and not that much more $.

 

Alienware!!!!!!!!!!!

You can get low end and high end. The high end is gonna run ya 4 grand though.

 

stay away from toshiba, they have horrendous customer service. I bought a laptop, it had a problem, they kept it for 4 weeks, they sent it back, it had the same problem, i sent it back in, they kept it for 3 weeks, i called them up, they said it'll be another 3 weeks, i was like wtf, spoke to someone higher, they offered me an extended warranty for free, i was like sure but if i never get the laptop back what goods an extended warranty, somehow they ended up getting it back to me 3 days later and not 3 weeks (which means they could've expedited it from the start), functioned well for another 6 months, but now the monitor is acting up. i was ready to file a case against them if it had come back broken the 2nd time.
i dont mind laptop breaking, many do, but i've had compaqs, hps, best buy's vpr brand, dell, and never had i had to wait more than a week turn around on a problem.

 

I have a gateway right now and i have not had one problem with it at all. ive had it for almost a year and not one problem. I got it for a really great price. It has a 80gig HD 512 of ram. Its a full p4 2.8 with HT. Battery life is short as hell. But i only paid a grand for it. I would recommend a gateway to anyone.

 

Dell and toshiba have had fewer problems. Id never touch a hp product again from previous problems with them. If i had to pick id say a dell

 

I had a dell, MB burnt, replaced, still works to this day with no problems.

I had a Sony, two MB replacements and the third time they couldn't find a replacement part, so they gave me an Acer, which should be here this week.

I would say go with anything you like and then from there buy the longest warranty possible, manufacturers warranty, no third party stuff.

 

blah blah blah. any problems people have with computers is purely bad luck. happens with all companies. if there was a brand you really needed to stay away from then you would know about it. it all depends on how smart or stupid the user/owner is.

 

get an Asus Z70va (Refresh)...I just got one about 1.5 months ago for college and it's fucking awesome...you can't go wrong w/ Asus laptops as they're some of the best built laptops in the market. Check out www.notebookforums.com

 

Are you telling everyone who has had a problem with a computer is an idiot and should learn how to use one prior to buyinh one?

 

i've had my inspiron 9300 for about 2 months

 

The older Alienware laptops were complete junk. I had an Area-51m that was total trash after a year.

The Dell laptops i've had are garbage as well.

 

I'm thinking about getting one of those "tablet" pc's myself... one of my friends has one, the brand is call "Motion" and it's quite amazing what that thing does... the screen was just awesome... you can view it in direct sunlight... and it's not far from being in the shades...

 

Believe it or not, the HP is 300$ cheaper than the dell. It has an athalon 2.2 processor as compared to the dells pentium m 1.7. But the dell comes with a 80 gig hard drive and the hp has a 60/5400. So, after much debate. I think i'm gonna try my luck with the hp. It seems to me they both have an equal amount of people that love them and hate them, so I guess we'll see what happens.

 

If I had to pick between the two, it would be HP.

But then again, I live about 2 miles from an HP building.. so I can bitch out the engineers.. even if they are only HP's printer R&D.... it has to count for something

 

get the Mac Powerbook G4...poop on Windows

 

I work for HP and you're making a good choice. I bought an 8000 for my brother and he loves it. Over the past 6 years, I've had 4 HP laptops and only one problem with the keyboard because I spilled on it.

 

my school was having a crazy sale the other day...... 12" Powerbook for $999
i should've bought one, but they were sold out in hours

i was in the same kinda situation a few months ago, debating between a dell 700m, an asus, or a mac

ended up with an Ibook and i am happy with my decision
if you need a PC, i would say go w/ asus if you can afford it

 

ui actually have the tablet pc i have the gateway 275mx or 475mx something like that its really "functional for college purposes. dont swivel the screen to much the hinges go bad (one year warrentee) the pen works on all applicatiions plus browsing the internet. i like it im happy (but then again mine was free)

 

i just bought an hp nc8000, its kind of bulky but it's noce considering its my first laptop

 

a lot of the time, yes. I have never had a problem with a computer, even though just about everyone in my family has. if a company had significant problems with their machines, they wouldnt be as popular as an imb, or hp, etc.

 

dell 700m

 

The ibooks are little expensive for what I want. This thing is going to be used for homework and gameing. It's only gonna be transported between work and home, so weight and battery life isn't too important to me, since I will always be near an outlet. I definetly want atleast 1gig of ram, and an 256 graphics card. so we'll see. I'm gonna check out the acers and see how they compare....

 

heck yeah, i love asus

 

Go to the mall and check out the 9300 first, look at it in person. My sister has the older model, the 9100 (same thing, just 15.4" widescreen instead of 17"). That damn thing is HUGE, HEAVY, and they don't tell you the power supply is the exact size and weight of a brick. She said the same thing you just said "I don't care about weight/size/blah blah b/c etc etc" and since she's seen my 700m (12.1" widescreen, 4lbs) she's been ranting about how shes going to sell hers and get one.

Hers is nice because it's a capable machine - but what do you REALLY need to do on it while away from home? I bought an insane desktop and my tiny laptop for less than a killer laptop. I don't have to carry around a bag of bricks, the desktop will smoke a killer laptop anyway plus larger LCD, and if one dies I have the other. Just something to think about...

 

toshiba are good. I dont dig HP laptop that much. and for Dell, their not that bad.

 

I see your point... I built my desktop a few years ago, and your right, it is faster and cheaper. One of the guys on my crew has a 9300, and i've played through a few games with it and know how heavy it is. For me, I'm gonna use it for gameing at work when we have down time between runs. Homework as well while i'm at work..... I would get the 15.4" screen, but I can't get the video card I want with it, so i'm going 17". the hardest thing was finding a bag that carried it. I ended up getting a bag from oakley.......

 

Get a Dell, I have had a Dell Inspiron 600m for almost 3 years now, and nothing really went wrong with it, except I had to replace the main battery a few weeks ago. Although dell does not offer laptops with the best quality, but their great customer service / support makes up for it. I have worked on HP pavillions as well, I believe the HP laptops share about the same quality as the Dell laptops, but their customer service and support sucks.

I work for a government agency and I have seen and used pretty much all of the laptops that is available on the market and some that are not. Other good brands you may consider are IBM / Lenovo, or Sony. The brands you want to stay away from are Acer, eMachine and the Toshiba Tablets.

 

My employer owns over 30 Inspiron 600m, and 5 Inspiron 9100.

They are all 1-1.5 years old. Nearly all of the 600ms have required a new battery. Many failed before 1 year and were warranty replaced. Batteries that die after 1 year are not covered, even if you have extended warranties. A new battery will set you back about $160, unless you go third party for about $120.

I have replaced 11 power supplies, 4 system boards, and 8 hard drives, all under warrenty. Good thing we went with the 3 year.

The 600m seems to have a problem in that a certain section of screen will become dark. It's in the lower part of the screen. Its like the back light has failed in that one part of the screen.

3 of the 9100s have required new batteries. 1 has been in for service for a bad video board.

We own 5 Latitude D610, no problem so far. They are about 6 months old.

 

I just bought a fujitsu s6240A... awesome laptop...

if its in ur budget to get one i'd recommend it...

 

If you are gonna be playing games on it mostly. I would suggest an alienware. They have the ability to upgrade the video cards. I do believe it is the only laptop that you are able to do that with. Antoher choice is the Dell XPS. Those are good gaming machines. I like the fact that you can replace the video cards in the alienware. Thats a big selling point to me.

 

The 14" XPS looks wicked, and is decently small/light. Not sure how well the Centrino does with gaming however...

 

i happen to like HP great deals

i think we got a zv6000 or smthing 1gb of ram, 100gb harddrive, dvd burning....etc


less than 1100 at bestbuy